Moon Phases and Blactail/Muley Activity

Interesting topic. Our family recently started hunting with another up in the Okanagon a few seasons ago and this was one of the topics after dark with a bit of whiskey. Our new hunting partners are ex- dept of wildlife commissioners. Good gents.
The reply that I got was that the moon plays significantly in the feeding habits of game at night, it's unclear if it effects animals as it does the tides. But what struck me the most odd was that he said the height of activity for deer was on the 17th of Nov. Regardless of weather, moon, habitat, or any other dynamic it happened that the research that has been done can't clearly point toward one factor over another, just that the 17th of Nov. is the height of rut, thus activity.
I won't bash the point as I have no statistical background, but have been more atuned to find that this is true.

In Ecuador where I hunt, there are no established seasons, sunrise and sundown are at the sametime all year round. What I have seen is that in full moons, deer are active around noon; in first and third quarter they are more active in the afternoon than in the morning; in new moon they will be very active during the mornings. The only logical reasons for this is that in full moon deer can feed at night so they will rest during the morning, eat at noon and rest until is night again. In new moon they can hardly see anything at night so they wont eat, that explains why they are very active in the mornings. In first and third quarter, they can partially eat at night so they are active in the mornings and in the afternoon. This has worked for me, but I agree that there are a lot of factors that involve deer activity, like climate, moon phases and others. There are no rut season in Ecuador because we have the same season all year round and they breed all year round, depending on what month deer are born. I have seen calves all year round.
Have a good one.
BORN TO HUNT!!!

To expand on what has been said from a different perspective. One of my greatest passions is bluefin tuna fishing.On the full and new moon we have the greatest tidal flow ie current. Bigger fish are lazy so the feeding period tends to be on the slack tide. In studying the tidal flow you see that on a waxing moon the less tidal flow is in the morning with the tidal flow being larger in the afternoon. My logs show that on a waxing moon my catch rate on the low ebb in the mornings especially just after dawn create the largest numbers of fish. When the moon crests and starts to wane. The tidal flow is least on the afternoon high tide. If I have a 5 or 600 pm high tide I'm going to be there with my live bait because this is the best tide to lure in a big money fish.
When you look at the solunar tables you see that it directly correlates with what I'm saying. Meaning the major times seem to be centered around the lesser of tidal flow and the minor times appear at the greater tidal flow.
The thing that ties mammals to what I'm saying is this. It is the magnetic gravitational fields of the earth,moon and sun that cause the tides. This magnetic pull has a direct effect on feeding animals and fish. Part of it has to do with polarized light. The moon is the calender not your wall or desk calender. The polarized light changes with the position of the sun in the sky. This is why you have differnt phases of the moon labled accordingly.
In my latitude the rutting moon is exactly that. Deer breed without fail on that moon. If it is warm you may not see them in the day but you do see the largest amount of roadkill bucks that week. The next moon is when you will see the secondary rut. Again the weather and hunting pressure may curtail the activity but again the roadkill#'s of bucks spike this week as well. Your game department should have records showing this to be true. on a particular moon phase depending on your latitude.

I realize that this thread says Blacktail/Muley, and I have hunted mulies a good bit, but I hunt whitetail's from mid- Sept thur Jan 01 extensively, usually 4 to 5 days every week for 14-15 weeks!, with a liberal bag limits of 15 deer . I have been keeping a hunting log for the past 11 years of each of my hunts, both morning and evening if possible. I include date, time, temp, weather cond, Bar. pressure, moon phase, moon times, location of hunt, sightings or kills... I hunt in the Western Portion of South Carolina and here are my findings based on bucks seen and harvested according to moon phases...7 days prior to and leading up to the full moon in October are best, with THE DAY OF THE FULL MOON THE BEST!! Then 7 days prior to and leading up to the full moon in Nov. are 2nd best, with THE FULL MOON DAY IN NOV BEST. We have killed 3 times as many trophy bucks in the 7 days prior to the full moon in October than any other times...period! If I had only one week to hunt....it would be the 7 days prior to the full moon in October...2nd choice would be 7 days prior to the full moon in Nov. Once again let me say that this is for the Western Upstate of South Carolina,,,,but I believe that my records will hold up for 7 days prior to A full moon in your area for the month of your local rut...
As a bit of a side-note I was a police officer and as I began following the times of the moon with my casio moon phase watch for hunting and fishing I began watching human behavior while at work according to the moon times....AMAZINGLY most of our violent crimes happened during these peek moon phase times....It really works!!

Hey guys first post here. I noticed going through my trail cam pictures that the deer showed up after the pigs and before the pigs in the day. Pigs were 6-8am and 8-10pm. So the deer showed up 10am-12pm and 3-6pm. This topic actually made me go back to see if there was any difference with the moon phases but I couldn't find any difference. I'd say the only thing that changes the mood of the bucks is the time of year (DEER SEASON). They were active mid day during the off season but once the rifle season showed up, they went nocturnal. Luckily I'm going to surprise them this year when I hunt my first archery season. BTW these are all blacktails I'm talking about.